TOURS: Dublin / Meath / Wicklow / Laois / Waterford: 13 April – 9 May, 2026
Verdant Productions team up with playwright Colin Murphy for his new play, Miasma. This gripping one-hour detective story is about the fight against the cholera pandemic in 1840s–50s ‘Charles Dickens’ era’ London. It follows the pioneering outsider doctor John Snow as he challenges medical orthodoxy and lays the foundations of modern epidemiology and data science.
CAST: Jack Gavin / Niamh McGrath / Robbie O’Connor / Karl Quinn / Peter Rothwell
CREATIVE TEAM:
Written by: Colin Murphy
Director by: Samantha Cade
Sound Design & Composition: Carl Kennedy
Lighting Design: Vico Nikci
Costume Design: Sorcha Ní Fhlionn
VENUES:
Royal College of Physicians, Dublin: Monday13 to Thursday 16 April
Trinity College Fri 17th May
Larkin Community College: Mon 20th April
Sean O’Casey Theatre, East Wall: Tues 21st April
The Lark, Balbriggan: Wed 22nd April
Research Ireland: Thursday 23 April
Town Hall Bray: Thursday 23 April
Royal College Surgeons: Friday 24th April
James Joyce Centre, Dublin: Tuesday 28th April
Dunamaise Arts Centre. Portlaoise: Wednesday 29th April
James Joyce Centre, Dublin: Thursday 30th April
Garter Lane Theatre, Waterford: Saturday 2nd May
Trap Door Theatre at UCD: Tuesday 5th May
The Venue, Ratoath: Wed 6th May
Tallaght Hospital, Dublin: Thursday 7th May
Royal Irish Academy, Dublin: Friday 8th May
Murphy’s medical detective story illuminates key challenges still at the heart of science and public health today, such as “bad science”, groupthink and dissent, and the tensions between public health and personal rights.
Miasma is a rare opportunity to experience a theatrical event that is intellectually rigorous, emotionally compelling and deeply relevant to contemporary conversations around public health, evidence-based decision-making and trust in science
In this age of conspiracy theories, misinformation and algorithmic outrage, how do we know when to “trust the science” – and when to trust the scientists?
Directed by Samantha Cade, who has worked extensively in stage and TV/film. The play spotlights themes of particular relevance to third-level students of medicine, science, social science and history. It combines sharp storytelling, historical insight and contemporary relevance in a format that is engaging for specialist and non-specialist audiences alike.
Miasma is going on an unprecedented tour of medical institutions, giving its audience an encounter not just with the play, but with venues that are rarely open to the public – including the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Irish Academy, the Royal College of Surgeons and Tallaght University Hospital.
This unique collaboration is funded by Research Ireland and derives from a pioneering European Research Council project at UCD’s Centre for Cultural Analytics and Insight Centre for Data Analytics. (See further detail below.) Many shows will be followed by a post-show discussion with experts on the issues at stake.
Told in a fast-paced, comic format by five esteemed Irish actors, the cast in the show are a team of exciting young and established actors that includes, Jack Gavin (Harry Wild (Nick Spillane), Prosperity (Georgie Jnr), and Little Women (BBC), and in Macbeth at Smock Alley Theatre); Niamh McGrath she is known for her one-woman show GomBean, her roles in Obituary (RTÉ/Hulu), and for the touring play, Alone It Stands. She specializes in theatre, comedy, and children’s puppetry; Robbie O’Connor known for his stage roles in The Lost O’Casey (Abbey Theaatre), The Red Shoes (Gate Theatre) and TV roles in Hidden (BBC) and RTE’s Fair City; Dublin-based Irish actor, writer, and theatre maker, Karl Quinn known for roles in Holding (2022), The Lovers (2023), and Fair City; and Peter Rothwell known for his roles in TV movies and series like Christmas in Notting Hill (2023), Harry Wild (2022), and Royal Rendezvous.
The Miasma project is funded by the Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland Discover Programme under grant number 24/DP/13227. It forms part of the ERC VICTEUR project (www.projectvicteur.com) that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 884951) and the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics, grant number 12/RC/2289_P2.
Taighde Éireann – Research Ireland is the new national research and innovation funding agency, established on the 1st August 2024 through the amalgamation of the activities and functions of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Irish Research Council (IRC).
About the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics
The Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics is one of Europe’s largest data analytics research organisations, with over 450 researchers, more than 80 industry partners and €150+ million in funding. Its research spans Fundamentals of Data Science, Sensing and Actuation, Scaling Algorithms, Model Building, Multi-Modal Analysis, Data Engineering and Governance, Decision Making and Trustworthy AI. Insight is made up of four host institutions at DCU, University of Galway, UCC and UCD. Insight’s partner sites are Maynooth University, Tyndall, TCD and UL. www.insight-centre.org
About the VICTEUR project
VICTEUR: European Migrants in the British Imagination: Victorian and Neo-Victorian Culture is a 5-year project funded by an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 884951). The project focuses on the long history of migration and dynamic cultural exchange. It brings together researchers from UCD Centre for Cultural Analytics and the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics, who have created a new searchable digital platform (Curatr) for the British Library Nineteenth Century Corpus. https://projectvicteur.com/
Running Time: 60 mins approx.
Age: 14+ yrs
